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While you were sleeping: Turcot’s believe it or not, illness in the health system, rehabilitation through farming, and Cuba prepares for ‘a range of actions by the enemy’

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Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

November 10, 2016 • 2 minute read

People spend the afternoon sitting on the Havana sea wall in Cuba, Nov. 9, 2016. Cuban President Raul Castro congratulated United States President-Elect Donald Trump in what appeared to have been a terse message to the man who could roll back two years of detente.Ramon Espinosa/ AP

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It’s not that bad, really: The Turcot gridlock is not as bad as simulations predicted. Keep that in mind when the eastbound Ville-Marie Expressway is reduced to two lanes from four for more than a year (no date yet, but soon). There will also be 12 to 15 weekends when it will be completely closed so crews can demolish the old structure. Then, sometime next year or early in 2018, crews will have to rebuild and demolish the westbound side, which will probably require a similar long-term lane reduction for that side of the expressway. It should all be over by 2020.

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It’s that bad: Long-term absenteeism is skyrocketing at most Montreal hospitals in the face of budget cuts, with a growing number of nurses and other health professionals going on medical leaves because of burnout and other mental health issues, statistics suggest. Ste-Justine Hospital is faring the worst, and nurses there complain that those who go on leave aren’t replaced, and they say the number of medical accidents in the birthing centre has tripled recently. We obtained figures that show that absenteeism rates have jumped at most hospitals as the health minister implemented sweeping cost-cutting reforms. The MUHC’s HR director said it’s hard to say what the cause is for rising absenteeism, but conceded there have been challenges at the superhospital.

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Swords into plowshares: Public consultations carried out by the federal government suggest there is “strong support” for reopening prison farms that were shut down six years ago. Ottawa is carrying out a feasibility study on penitentiary farms, looking in particular at reopening two in the Kingston area. The 2010 closure of the prison farms by the then-Conservative government — in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta — was highly controversial. A consultation found that the main factors supporting reopening the farms included the need to help the rehabilitation of inmates and the positive impact the farms could have in communities.

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Cubans keep their eyes on Trump: Cubans worried on Wednesday that as U.S. president, Donald Trump will throw the United States’ 2-year-old detente with Cuba into reverse, erasing their hopes for a more prosperous future of normal ties with Washington. The Cuban government, meanwhile, announced the launch of five days of nationwide military exercises to prepare troops to confront what it called “a range of actions by the enemy,” using terminology that almost always refers to the U.S. Trump has promised to reverse Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba unless President Raul Castro agrees to more political freedom on the island, a concession considered a virtual impossibility.

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